YURI (Her Russian Protector #3) by Roxie Rivera Read Free Book Online Page B

heart thudded into my throat. "Dad, what's wrong?"
    "Nothing. It's nothing. I just—I worry about you."
    "Dad…"
    "I have to go. I'll call you soon. I love you, Lena."
    "I love you, too, Dad."
    The line went dead. I stared at my phone and replayed the bizarre conversation. Despite my father's ex-con history and his current illegal line of work, he'd always been a damned good dad to me. Unlike Vivian's father who had put her in harm's way again and again, Dad had given up the drug-dealing and gun-running for a safer criminal enterprise. His fencing operation had paid for me to attend the private high school where I'd met Vivian and Erin. As much as I hated the line of work he'd chosen, I couldn't deny that it had provided certain opportunities for me.
    Not wanting to get out of bed but unable to fall back asleep, I scrolled through my list of missed calls and voicemails. Tommy had called, like, a million times. What the hell had he done this time? Whatever it was I had a bad feeling he'd dragged my dad into it.
    Not wanting to deal with that mess, I hit my email inbox. Apparently word of my epic flounce from 716 had already spread. There were messages of the "you go, girl!" and the "what the fuck were you thinking?" variety. I was too tired to answer any of them, and honestly, I didn't have the answers.
    Checking my Twitter timeline shocked me. A message sent out by Ty Weston, Houston's society gossipmonger and the king of an international gossip empire, tagged with my name and Yuri's handle with a pic attached had gotten a hell of a lot of retweets. Stomach knotting with dread, I clicked the link—and nearly died.
    There, blown up on my phone's screen, was a snapshot of Yuri kissing me. The caption killed me. @PRPrincess giving new client @YNovakovsky that personal touch?
    For the longest time, I simply stared at it. In fact, I was still staring at it when Vivian knocked on my bedroom door and stepped inside. She had her phone clutched in one hand and a mug of that cinnamon tea she loved so much in the other. From the look of her wet hair, she'd already been out for her morning run and had showered. Her gaze dropped to my phone. "I guess you've seen the photo."
    "Yeah." I sat up and pushed my pillow behind my back for support. "Surely Ty had hotter gossip than me and Yuri kissing to peddle to his society page followers."
    Vivian sat on the edge of my bed. "I don't know. That's a pretty hot picture."
    I groaned. "This is crazy, Vee. Is this what it's going to be like if we date? Am I going to have to worry about dumbass people taking pics of us?"
    "Probably." She didn’t even try to sugarcoat it for me. "The guy is a billionaire, Lena. And he's not one of those bottom-of-the-list billionaires either. Yuri is filthy rich. People love to gossip about sexy, wealthy men and the women they date."
    "Ugh." I put my head in my hands. "I don't want everyone in my business."
    "I guess you better decide if Yuri's worth the trouble."
    The answer came to me instantly. "He is."
    She smiled and thumped my leg through the covers. "I knew it!"
    "What?"
    "Last night, you were telling me you wanted to take it slow with him but I think maybe you two have been taking it slow for too long. Like glacially slow."
    I started to point out that she had no business talking to me about dancing around a mutual attraction but bit my tongue. "Look, I like him. I really like Yuri. I just want it to go right between us."
    "You want my advice? Stop thinking about everything that could go wrong. You always do that when you meet a great guy. It's like you're ready to pounce on the first thing that goes wrong so you can write him out of your life." She squeezed my foot through the duvet. "Don't let Yuri be one of those guys. He's special, Lena. I mean, he's, like, the one material."
    I couldn’t argue with her about that. He was special. That's what scared me so much about dating him. He belonged to a world of wealth and privilege I couldn't even comprehend.